Microsoft's monopolistic tendency rears its ugly head again?

Microsoft became a household name when personal computers were made available to almost everybody in the world. Computers started off as huge machines the size of refrigerators which had to be housed in air-conditioned rooms, with memory size laughable by today's standards and which could not even compare with mobile phones. If I can still remember correctly, my first personal computer, an Apple II clone had only 64k memory!

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that Bill Gates became the world's richest man mainly because every computer sold worldwide needed the one and only operating system, Windows, provided by his Microsoft Corp. The following report which was forwarded by my friend seems to suggest Microsoft is trying to have a similar money-making arrangement with Android manufacturers because of their increasingly popular product. Android has already captured more than half of all new sales of smartphones and tablets.

Google: Microsoft trying to “extort” money from Android manufacturers

Google has just commented on today’s news about Samsung agreeing to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for every Android device it sells, claiming that it’s simply Microsoft trying to cover its failures in the mobile world by planning to “extort” money from hardware makers out of spite.
Here’s the Google quote, from TechCrunch:

“This is the same tactic we’ve seen time and again from Microsoft. Failing to succeed in the smartphone market, they are resorting to legal measures to extort profit from others’ achievements and hinder the pace of innovation. We remain focused on building new technology and supporting Android partners”

And as much as we’d like to agree, we somehow doubt Samsung would hand Microsoft money unless its legal people told them it was 100% necessary.

So it seems Android is as “free” for the hardware makers as the phones it runs on are “free” to us – free for your initial contract, then an annoying monthly fee…
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